NYRR Media Center

Sharon Lokedi has had much success in New York, placing second in her New York Road Runners racing debut at the 2022 Mastercard New York Mini 10K. She returned in the fall for her marathon debut, winning the TCS New York City Marathon in 2:23:23 to become just the eighth athlete to win the race in their true 26.2-mile debut.

She returned in 2023 to finish on the TCS New York City Marathon podium in third before placing second at the 2024 Boston Marathon. In her return to the 2024 Mastercard New York Mini 10K she secured silver again in 31:04.

Later that summer, she narrowly missed a medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, finishing fourth in the marathon, just four seconds off the podium after stepping in as a late replacement for the Kenyan team.

Most recently Lokedi captured her first United Airlines NYC Half title in March, shattering the event record in the process, before winning the Boston Marathon in course record fashion in April.

Lokedi grew up in Kenya’s Kalenjin tribe as the oldest of four children, and it was a long journey to the University of Kansas in the U.S. When she was 14, following the Kenyan presidential election results, her family fled their home village of Burnt Forest, which became the center of the Kenyan crisis and violence due to the population’s conflicting loyalties. For a month, her family lived in silence and fear with no shelter or steady source of food or possessions. After the conflict ended, they returned to their home safely, and that’s when Lokedi started running four kilometers to and from school each day.